Blueberry Orange Bread

I look at this little plaque every day. It hangs in my kitchen above my stand mixer and it reminds me of my Grandma, Edna Smith Browne. She had it hanging in her kitchen for many, many years. I miss her on a daily basis because of who she was, all she taught me, and my memories of things we did together. She is still an inspiration to me to be a better woman. So, I've been looking at this plaque and realized I've never tried the recipe on it. So I did!

It calls for: 3 cups all purpose flour (I used two c. ap and one cup wheat)
3/4 c. sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon salt (I did a scant teaspoon!)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1 tablespoon grated orange peel (I just zested one orange because that is all I had)
2/3 cup orange juice (again just squeezed one orange)
1 cup fresh, frozen, or drained canned blueberries
1/2 chopped walnuts (I omitted since I don't like nuts in my baked goods)

I started by creaming the butter and sugar. Then I added the milk and eggs. Then I mixed the dry ingredients separately and added them in to the mix. Then I added the orange zest and juice and finally folded in the blueberries by hand. I started to put it all in one bread pan but I didn't know if the batter would rise too much since it had a whole tablespoon of baking powder plus some baking soda. So I put most of the batter in the bread pan and then made six "muffins" out of the rest. It would have been fine all in one bread pan-but my daughter loved it as a muffin. So I may skip the bread pan all together next time! Then I baked the bread at 350 degrees for an hour or so.

It was so yummy! We really enjoyed the bright taste of the orange. And it was a nice change from the typical banana bread I normally make. As I mixed the bread I thought, "Oh Grandma, you are probably laughing at me right now for trying a recipe on a wall-hanging!" But as it turns out, it is a delicious recipe! I like to think she tried it on a whim one day and fed it to her children too. Yummy!